The present invention is directed to a support sheath for stabilizing, protecting and guiding a surgical needle during a surgical procedure. The support sheath is preferably adapted for stabilizing, protecting and guiding the syringe and needle for injecting anesthesia during a nasal procedure, such as a Sphenopalatine ganglion block.
A variety of invasive facial surgical procedures require entry through the nasal cavity. For example, surgical procedures conducted on the Eustachian tube typically involve entry through the nasal cavity, i.e., intranasal approach. Likewise, a Sphenopalatine ganglion block procedure is a nerve block that is also typically administered through the nasal cavity with relatively small needles and a guidance catheter to inject medication into the area of the Sphenopalatine ganglion. Procedures conducted through the nasal cavity often require the use of relatively small, thin needles. For example, a twenty-seven (27) gauge spinal needle, typically having a diameter of approximately forty-one hundredths of a millimeter (0.41 mm) is often utilized to deliver medication under the mucosal membranes into a targeted area. Such needles are generally malleable and deflectable. One challenge encountered by medical personnel during such surgical procedures is that the nasal cavity (pathway) and beyond includes soft tissue, e.g., mucous membranes and connective tissue that often requires some degree of deflection or manipulation in order to advance the needle to the proper location. The needle is, however, often more easily deflectable than the soft tissue and the needle is deflected by the soft tissue off of the desired path or away from the target area, rather than the soft tissue being deflected out of the way by the needle.
It would, therefore, be advantageous to provide a support sheath having the structural rigidity to deflect or manipulate tissue in the nasal cavity, in order to stabilize and direct the needle into the target area or proper area where medication is injected. It is particularly advantageous to design, manufacture and deploy a surgical needle support member that is removably connectable to the syringe to urge soft tissue out of the surgical path such that a tip or point of the needle may be positioned at the target area where medication injection is desired.